Studying Zen

Studying Zen, learning the way, is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing.
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What do I mean by other things? Arousing the mind and stirring thoughts right now; having contrivance and artificiality; having grasping and rejecting; having practice and realization; having purity and defilement; having sacred and profane; having Buddhas and sentient beings; writing verses and songs, composing poems and odes; discoursing on Zen and the way; discoursing on right and wrong; discoursing on past and present.
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These various activities are not relevant to the issue of birth and death; they are all “other things.”
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~ Chien-ju